I buy a lot of compilations. When it comes to purchasing music, they’re the best bang for your buck, because you get a lot of tunes for very little money per unit. The music industry knows this all too well. As music becomes ever more disposable and difficult to market individual artists, many labels have taken to releasing massive comps containing a large number of tunes, in the hopes that customers will find enough appealing music within to purchase the whole thing. There are labels that exclusively do this. Lately, there are some that just go too far.

DUBSTEP CHARTS 2010-2011-2012

This massive “Dubstep” compilation was released by SOUTH LONDON RECORDS, which is one of these labels that only licenses tunes for use on compilations, grouped by genre, in many popular forms of EDM. This particular one features material spread across several different sub-genres of BASS music. It LITERALLY contains 100 tunes! Pretty good deal for the $11-or-so US dollars they charge for the entire thing… except that only HALF of the tunes are any good. Believe me, I’m being as lenient and accepting as possible in saying that half of this compilation is boring, unimaginative, forgettable, poorly produced, or just plain bad! So why did I buy it? For the other half. There’s no big hits, and you need to be a bass head to find names that you’ll recorgnize on it, but there are a good 50 tunes on the comp that, for varrying reasons, are fantastic!

My frustration is that I needed to sift my way through the 50 shit tunes in order to find the 50 choice ones. This begs me to pose the question: what is the point of releasing such a large compilation in which only half of the music is worthy of purchase??? Why not have a little bit of discretion, or do a little bit of social research, and weed out the poor half? 50 tunes is still a massive comp, and it’s not like you make any more money on 100 songs than you would on 50. The total caps off at the same price either way. I know different people have different tastes, and you’re hoping to appeal to everyone, but I can’t imagine anybody not concluding that half of this comp is shit. And how many people have the patience to dig through music that they’re not enjoying, in the hopes of finding some gems hiding in the filth? Very few, I assure you.

Just so we’re in agreement here, I invite YOU to take a shot at PREVIEWING THIS COMP, and please do share your opinion in the COMMENTS section below. Lemme know how many songs you listened to before giving up, OR deciding to purchase the whole thing.

I’m a rare breed. I really enjoy digital crate digging, which is why I took the time to identify and purchase the outstanding material on said compilation. Just to prove that I’m not crazy, and because I don’t want this post to be an entirely unenjoyable experience, here’s one of the gems…

CONSTANTLY GOING OUT OF MY HEAD hovers between DUBSTEP and GARAGE, with catchy R&B vocals, and some FUTURE JUNGLE breaks that really take the song to the next level of awesome. It’s performed by a rather mysterious vocalist, named DANIELLE MELODY. All I was able to find out about her is that she resides in London, and this is her first and only single. Needless to say, I hope to hear more from her.

WOW!
Danielle is astonished at your article and somewhat dumbstruck. Thank you for your very kind words, they mean a lot to her considering the masses of work that all have put into producing and releasing her single. In the meantime we have released a new mix of Constantly (Going Outta My Head)Deep-house mix. Hope you like this too???

She has written quite a few songs but finding the skill and knowledge of the most talented people is yet another task in itself. However, very soon she will be collaborating to produce something quite special soon.